


Bright Yellow Ducks

by dannikathewomanika



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, M/M, Marauders, jily, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 14:14:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15511638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dannikathewomanika/pseuds/dannikathewomanika
Summary: Lily works at a corner store, and one day the Marauders walk in on a quest for ice cream.





	Bright Yellow Ducks

Lily Evans was leaning on the counter of the corner store she worked in, scrolling through Instagram. It was almost 11 pm, and at this point she was just wishing she could go home and go to sleep, but there was still an hour left before she could close up. Albus, the eccentric old man who owned the corner store, had disappeared half an hour ago, claiming to be going on his lunch break. Lily hadn’t wanted to point out just how far past lunchtime it was, and she was beginning to think that Albus had probably gone to sleep somewhere. She would have to find him later.

Suddenly, Lily heard the bell above the door jingling and looked up to see four boys about her age walk in. They looked vaguely familiar, but Lily couldn’t think why she might recognize them. One of the boys, who had long black hair done up in a man bun, held the door open for another, who was taller than the first and wore an oversized jumper. Once Jumper was through the door, Man Bun let it close on the other two, put his arm around Jumper’s waist, and started begging for ice cream. The other two boys burst through the door a few seconds later, cursing. The third boy was short, round, and blond, and he quickly joined Man Bun in begging Jumper for ice cream. The fourth boy...Lily couldn’t help staring at the fourth boy. He was almost hot, with messy dark hair and laughing hazel eyes, but his more-than-a-little-bit-dorky round glasses ruined the effect.

Before Lily remembered to look away, Almost Hot turned and caught her staring. He grinned and winked, then went and joined his friends. Lily, furious with herself, didn’t notice his quick glance back at her before he also began to beg Jumper for ice cream.

~~~

“Why don’t you just ask her out? The worst thing she can do is say no.”

James Potter groaned, wishing with all his heart that he had never asked Sirius for advice. He should have known it would be useless. “I can’t just ask her out, you idiot!”

“Why? That’s what I did with Moony.”

“That is _so_ not what you did with Moony. I don’t even want to talk about what you did with Moony.”

Sirius smirked. “Just ‘cause you walked in on it.”

“Yeah, and that image is now seared in my brain forever.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Why was that how you guys got together? I think asking someone out on a date is a much better idea than that.”

“But the sexual tension between us, Prongs…” Sirius clasped his hands to his chest dramatically, “It was just too much.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“And I asked him out on a date afterwards, anyway.”

Remus, who had walked into James’ room just in time to hear the last bit, snorted. “Two days afterwards. And Peter had to be the one to make him do it.” He sat on the bed next to Sirius, who immediately stretched himself out, using Remus’ lap as a pillow.

“Is Peter on the way?” James asked.

“Yes, he’ll be here soon. Why did you call a meeting? I assume it wasn’t to talk about mine and Sirius’ sex life.”

“No, and I wish the conversation hadn’t taken that turn.”

“Oh, you poor virgin.” Sirius grinned, kicking James’ leg.

“Fuck off.” James mumbled. He felt his phone buzz in his pocket. It was a text from Peter. “He says the front door is locked. Remus, how did you get in?”

“The back door.”

“Why the back door and how did you get over the fence?”

“Because the front door was locked and I climbed.”

“That’s a pretty tall fence, Remus.”

“I have pretty good climbing skills.”

“You could have texted me.”

“I’ll be honest, the thought hadn’t crossed my mind.”

James got another text from Peter. “I’d better go let him in.”

“Yeah,” Remus agreed. He had been playing with Sirius’ hair, and had woven it into a lovely french braid. He tapped Sirius’ shoulder, and Sirius handed him a hair elastic. “His fence-climbing skills are shit.”

~~~

A few days later, Lily was once again working much later than she would have liked, and the four boys came in. This time Albus was there as well, knitting something shapeless and brightly coloured. When he saw who had come in, he looked very excited.

“I used to teach those four.” He told Lily.

“Did you?” Lily was surprised that Albus had been allowed to teach at all, given how absent-minded he could be. She wasn’t sure he could be trusted to look after himself, much less a classroom full of children. The four boys didn’t notice Lily and Albus, and instead went straight to the ice cream freezers. Lily could hear Jumper protesting loudly that he wasn’t paying again.

A few minutes later, the boys came up to the counter, and a disgruntled looking Jumper pulled out his wallet. It was then that Blondie noticed Albus.

“Professor!” Albus looked delighted that the boys remembered him, although Lily thought that forgetting Albus would take a lot of effort and possibly a head wound. As they all exchanged greetings, Lily learned the boys’ names. Blondie was Peter, Almost Hot was James, Jumper was Remus, and Man Bun was Sirius. When she heard those last two names, Lily realized why she recognized them.

“Do you guys go to Hogwarts?” she asked. James opened his mouth as if to answer, but didn’t say anything, and it was Sirius who finally spoke.

“Yes,” he told her. “Do you?”

“No, but my friend Alice does, and she told me about some of the things you four have done”

“Alice Fortescue? Dating Frank Longbottom?”

“Yup, that’s her.”

“You must be Lily, then.” James interrupted. “We’ve heard so much about you.” He grinned at her, and she rolled her eyes.

“Which of you is paying for the ice cream?” she asked.

“Me.” Remus grumbled.

~~~

All the marauders were at Peter’s house, trying to think of something to do. It was nearing the end of summer, and they had run out of ideas at least a week previously. Sirius was, for some unknown reason, rooting around in Peter’s closet, while the others were sitting on the bed or, in Peter’s case, on the floor.

Sirius finally emerged from the closet triumphantly holding up a pair of bright yellow duck slippers. “Look at these! Just look at them! Aren’t they magnificent?” James could barely be bothered to look up.

“Not really. Didn’t Pete’s crazy aunt give them to him or something?”

“First of all,” Peter said indignantly, “She’s my second cousin, not my aunt, and second of all, she’s not crazy. Well, not that crazy, anyway.” He added thoughtfully.

Remus took the slippers from Sirius. “Why did you want these, anyway?”

“Well, number one, they’re fabulous. B, I just wanted to look at them, and last but certainly not least….” Sirius leaned over Peter to take the slippers from Remus, “they squeak!” He squeezed the slippers and sure enough, they squeaked. It was so loud that Peter’s mother came in, wondering what was happening.

“We’re going to have so much fun with these.” Sirius said delightedly.

~~~

As much as Remus enjoyed watching as Sirius forced James to walk around the neighbourhood in yellow squeaking duck slippers, he thought it was maybe a bit much to make him go to the corner store, especially since Sirius knew that Lily was working there that day. James, however, seemed perfectly willing to make a fool of himself, so Remus didn’t protest too much.

James had spent the better part of their three months of vacation talking about the girl from the corner store. He and Sirius had found her Instagram, and was disappointed when they realized that it was on private and they couldn’t stalk it. Remus had pointed out that James could just request to follow her, but his suggestion had been shot down, and Sirius had refused to explain why. Peter seemed to be enjoying the whole thing, and spent a lot of time making fun of James, who didn’t usually get like this about girls.

The four of them walked into the corner store, James’ duck slippers squeaking with each step. Lily looked up, frowning, and when she saw the slippers she started to laugh. James grinned.

“You like them, Evans?” he asked, “Everyone will be wearing them soon, you’ll see.”

“In your dreams, Potter.” She said. Remus privately thought that if James were to ask her out, she might not say no. As long as he wasn’t an idiot about it. Which was unlikely.

They bought their ice creams-which Peter had agreed to pay for this time-and squeaked out the door.

~~~

The day after the slipper incident, James requested to follow Lily on Instagram. She tried to convince herself that it wasn’t a big deal, because someone following you on Instagram absolutely does not mean that they fancy you, but she was unsuccessful. So the day after that, when James came into the store alone looking more than a little nervous, Lily knew exactly where this was going.

He came up to the counter and, looking at a spot just to the right of her head, said, “Um...Lily.”

“Yes?” Lily had decided to be very unhelpful and make him stumble his way through the whole thing, just for the fun of it.

“Well, um, I-I was wondering if you would maybe want to go on a date with me?”

“That was a lot better than I expected. Well done.”

James just looked at her.

“Yes, I’ll go on a date with you.” Lily said, laughing. “When and where?”

“Uh…” James clearly hadn’t thought this far ahead.

“There’s a movie playing in the park this friday. 8pm. Meet me there?”

James nodded. “Yeah. Ok.” He left the store in a hurry, and Lily smiled to herself, already looking forward to Friday night.

~~~

The date started out, in James’ humble opinion, excellently. He met Lily at the park, where she already had a blanket and some movie snacks, which was good because he had forgotten that they would need them. The movie wasn’t bad, although he and Lily talked through the first half. It was around the second half of the movie that things started to go downhill. Sirius, Remus, and Peter arrived. Sirius had joked around about crashing James’ date, and James, not wanting anything to go wrong, had told him very clearly not to. He had also told Remus and Peter that it was their job that evening to keep Sirius occupied and make sure that he didn’t come to the park. Apparently, that hadn’t worked out. Lily didn’t seem to mind at first, and she was even getting along well with Remus and Peter, but then Sirius got bored and started acting the way he always did when he got bored. He threw chips at people near them, talked loudly about inappropriate things, and was just a general nuisance. Lily did not find that amusing. James watched as she got more and more annoyed, and he tried to get Sirius to go find something else to amuse him, but it didn’t work. As it was, when the movie ended and Lily gathered up her things to go home, James wasn’t sure if she would ever want to see him again.

Sirius, watching as Lily walked away, finally seemed to realize what he had done. He turned back to see all three of his friends glaring at him. “Sorry?”

“You should be.” James pushed past Sirius and stormed out of the park.

~~~

The school year started, and Lily still hadn’t talked to James. She wasn’t mad at him, exactly, but she didn’t want to have to put up with his friends, even if two of them had actually been very nice. She filled her days with school, friends, and working at the corner store, and managed to push James to the back of her mind. Then, one day, she got a message from him.

**hey, i just wanted to say, i’m sorry about my friends. i swear i didn’t mean for them to ruin our date. sirius is just like that sometimes**

And then, a few minutes later,

**we get to come home for the weekend next week. can we give it another shot?**

Lily thought about it and realized that she wouldn’t mind seeing James Potter again.

_Sure. Just promise me your friends won’t show up this time_

**don’t worry. i’ve already given remus strict orders to keep sirius occupied**

Lily laughed. She couldn’t wait for next weekend.


End file.
